Ten Across Conversations

Cities and states along the I-10 are having to consider many existential questions as the climate warms. Looking to the future, the question is whether these communities can adequately respond and adapt to intensifying storm patterns, rising sea levels and extreme drought. It’s a radical shift in thought, given that earlier centuries of American settlement were primarily focused on developing tech...

It is a moment of climate extremes in California. While the state still grapples with a shrinking Colorado River from megadrought, more snowpack accumulated on the Sierra Nevada this winter than is currently stored in one of the river’s main tributaries, Lake Mead. It was a winter season many have called unpredictable and unprecedented, resulting in a series of deadly floods and the reemergence of...

As cities continue to grow in population and cultural influence within our Ten Across region, tensions between local and state governments appear to have exploded in the last few years over various socioeconomic, public safety, electoral and cultural issues. Though preemptive action from the state or federal government has at times, been organic or useful in the past, a more concerning form of pre...

Even as the threat of dead pool on Lakes Powell and Mead and loss of hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam now looms mere acre-feet away, another federal deadline came to pass this January with no consensus on allocation or conservation among the Colorado River basin states. Ten Across has been following the negotiations and challenges of the drying Colorado River over the last few years, hosting engaging...

Houston, Texas is a definitive city for the Ten Across initiative. It is now the fourth largest city in the United States and is often called the energy capital of the world. Houston is also known for its vast highway infrastructure—a system that both fractures and connects its communities and continues to breed controversy today. Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with history and...

Between August 2020 and May 2021, Lake Charles, Louisiana experienced two hurricanes, a historic flood, and an ice storm—leaving the community in dire straits as it tried to get back on its feet. Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with journalist and podcast host Lauren Rosenthal about her experience on the ground in Lake Charles and putting disasters in human terms that can help us...

Homelessness affects every urban community in the country one way or another. Not only is it a hot button political issue, but it is also one of the most complex and intractable challenges we face as a modern society—not solvable by any single policy, group, or person. How did we get here and what can we do about it? Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter discusses the issue with author and r...

The decarbonization and electrification of the transportation sector is essential to mitigating the effects of climate change as we hurdle through the 21st century. Such a feat requires reimagining and rethinking how we move ourselves and our goods around the country, especially regarding highways. Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter discusses how we can bring highways into the 21st centur...

Los Angeles is one of the most complex and fascinating cities in the country. Much like the rest of California and the Ten Across region more broadly, LA is on the leading edge of climate change—battling increasingly intense wildfires and water shortages, as well as socioeconomic divides that have resulted in a significant homeless population. The city also renders a compelling depiction of the Am...

The southern tier of the United States faces unique risk of natural and made-man disasters—from hurricanes along the Gulf Coast to drought in the Southwest. Such events are not only likely, but inevitable and predictable. The question then becomes what to do with that knowledge. Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with national security and risk expert Juliette Kayyem about rethinkin...

The most significant challenges of our time, notably the effects of climate change, do not confine themselves within existing country, state, county, city, or community borders. Given the enormity of such issues, are our present geographies adequate to properly address these issues at the scale required? Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter explores new ways of thinking and problem solving...

As flows on the Colorado River continues to dwindle, Southern California is facing dire questions about the sustainability of its water supply. Water managers across jurisdictions are having to work together to find innovative solutions to reduce reliance on the river and also find new sources, such as water recycling and desalination. Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with Adel Ha...

With nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions coming from the transportation sector, decarbonizing the system is an essential step on the road to a zero-emission future. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 significantly bolstered the federal government’s efforts to mitigate climate change—former establishing a new joint office between the Department of T...

Western cities like Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas have always been criticized for their existence because of their location in the arid west. Such commentary is becoming increasingly common with proliferating information about the current western megadrought. But are those questions and critiques valid? In part three of this series, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter speaks with policy r...

Ten Across looks at major challenges holistically—including the artificial barriers or boundaries which may inhibit addressing an issue with all of the means at our disposal. We’re taking a deeper dive into the Colorado River crisis in a series of episodes—an exemplary case study into one of the monumental challenges of our time. Join us as we speak with experts who can provide insights into the h...

The worsening situation of the Colorado River is illustrative of many of the larger environmental and climate change challenges we face as a society today. Ten Across looks at major challenges holistically—including the artificial barriers or boundaries which may inhibit addressing an issue with all of the means at our disposal. We’re taking a deeper dive into the Colorado River crisis in a series...

Heat waves and the dramatic effects of climate change have brought how we design, heat, and cool our buildings into sharp focus. The built environment is the key to survivability in an era of extremes, but if we are not careful—it can also contribute to making things worse. How can we keep cool without putting undue stress on the grid and adding to greenhouse gas emissions? Listen in as Ten Across...

The Ten Across geography intersects with some of the largest cities and the most pressing issues facing the country: drought, sea-level rise, wildfire, extreme temperatures, immigration, and increasingly, the questioning of democracy itself. City mayors have always been on front lines of these monumental challenges—requiring a sense of realism about the present and optimism about the future. Liste...

In this Ten Across virtual panel discussion, we speak to a panel of distinguished editors and journalists from several nonprofit news outlets across the Ten Across region about the future of nonprofit and local journalism, examples of its impact in reporting critical issues facing the region, and its importance to our sometimes fragile democracy. Moderator: Susan Goldberg, Vice Dean + Professor of...

The tumult of the global energy market has sent energy prices soaring worldwide, brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At a time when the window for making meaningful strides in addressing climate change is closing, demand for fossil fuels is at an all-time high. How do we reconcile our immediate needs for fossil fuel with the imperatives of decarbonizing our energy systems and infrastructur...

The historic megadrought in the western United States, compounded by human-caused climate change, has curtailed the flow of the Colorado River to critical levels with no relief in sight. However, keen observers predicted this situation over a century ago, so how did we end up here? Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks to water experts Anne Castle and John Fleck about the history and f...

As the world faces the compounding impacts of rapid climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the path to reducing carbon emissions even more fraught with calls to increase production of fossil fuels. Navigating both these crises require extraordinary problem solving at scale. Are the world’s democracies equipped to address such problems quickly enough? Listen in as Ten Across founder...

The environmental justice movement has been around for decades, but has recently come to the forefront of mainstream discussion with the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The Biden Administration has emphasized social equity and the need to address historically unfair placement of large-scale infrastructure projects in and around communities of color. What does a renewed focus on this...

A new and sobering report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that the impacts of our warming climate are even worse and scarier than previously thought. This has prompted a barrage of doomsday-like headlines that could make even the most optimistic observers feel overwhelmed and discouraged. There is no doubt the time is now for action, but how can journalists hel...

Two recent scientific reports paint different pictures of America’s water situation regarding climate change. An article published in Nature Climate Change found that the current megadrought in the western U.S. is the driest in the last 1,200 years. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that it expects sea levels to rise by one foot by 2050, affecting the Gulf Coast Regi...